


A Rebel's Work

by Abrokeinheart



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-03-30 16:30:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13955553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abrokeinheart/pseuds/Abrokeinheart
Summary: Hadley Carmichael is the daughter of the mayor who built a wall around the once beautiful city of Dietrich. The night of her 17th birthday, her life is thrown in a loop when she discovers there's a different world that lives in the shadows at the base of the wall. There has been a rebellion building for years and the leader has a bone to pick with the entire Carmichael family. Hadley must face choosing between her family and her morals.





	A Rebel's Work

Hadley faintly hears the sound of sirens outside her open window. The downstairs music pounds in her ears, scrambling her thoughts. She stands in front of her ornate mirror- a present from her parents. She runs a hand through her hair that was chopped short to her ears 5 months ago. Hadley laughs at the memory of her parents being infuriated when it happened; an act of rebellion they called it. The day after being grounded, she dyed it baby pink; the color of her mother’s roses. 

She ties a velvet ribbon around her neck. She stares at it in the mirror as her hands drop to her sides. A golden band on her right hand catches the light and reflects it across the room. 

Walking over to her bed, Hadley sits down. She tugs on a pair of platform boots, a fairly new pair that had only been worn once before. She then pulls a silver jacket over her dress and stands up. The dress scratches her knees, but she ignores it. Her parents picked this dress out specifically for this party- one that Hadley is reluctant to attend. 

Hadley walks over to the open window and crawls out onto the balcony. She leans against the rail and watches as people laugh in the dark and disappear into her house. She looks down at the rest of the city. She can just barely see the wall that separates her world from someone else’s. She longs to see the wall in person. 

Her father had been the lead contractor on the wall and got wealthy from it- that and going on to be the mayor. Hadley’s father said the wall separates the good people from the bad, but Hadley disagrees. She’s certain that whatever is beyond the wall must be better that what’s inside. 

A knock on her door pulls her from her thoughts. A maid walks in the room and over to the window. Hadley hears her shiver in the night air. 

“Hadley, your parents wish for you to be downstairs. And get out of the cold before you catch a cold.” The maid scolds. 

“Amanda, my parents wish a lot of things. They can wait a few more minutes.” Hadley pointedly crosses her arms. 

“This is your party. Please do not start trouble.” 

Hadley sighs and crawls back into her room and shuts the window behind her. Amanda follows her out of the room and to the suitcase. Hadley stands at the top and watches the crowd. Her parents are laughing in the corner with a few people that Hadley vaguely recognizes. Her school friends are downing shots like no tomorrow. She cringes at the sight. 

The maid rings a bell and the music stops. Everyone’s head turns to Hadley. She takes a breath as the maid introduces her to the crowd. 

“Presenting Miss Hadley Anne Carmichael!” The crowd claps, followed by a few whistles. Hadley smiles politely as she walks down the spiral staircase. When she reaches the bottom, she curtseys and the music starts playing again. 

Hadley makes her way over to her friends who make room for her in their circle. Emilia, another girl from a wealthy family, grabs her arm. Her blonde locks bounce with every step she takes. 

“Your party is wonderful!” Emilia gushes. 

“Thanks, Em. Though, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I just showed up.” She and Emilia laugh. 

“I wish my parents would throw me a party this grand.” Emilia stares at the ribbons that drape over the chandeliers and the long tables lined with foods and drinks. The fabric of the ribbons and the tablecloths are a rich red; not what Hadley would have chosen, but she admits that it goes well with the white, black and gold accents of her house. 

“Hadley! Babe!” A boy with spiky hair dyed the color of gold and wearing an equally metallic gold blazer takes long strides to her and throws his arm around her. 

“Max, remove your arm before I pull it out of it’s socket.” Max’s grip tightens and so does Hadley’s jaw. 

“Calm down.” Max whispers into Hadley’s ear. 

“You misogynistic prick. Get off of me.” 

“Easy now, Hadley. You wouldn’t want to make a scene now, would you?” Hadley narrows her eyes. She pretends to stretch and pulls her elbow back into Max’s chest. Max stumbles back and struggles to catch his breath. 

“Hadley, come on chill out. Stop being so aggressive.” Max frowns and crosses his arms. 

“Max, please. I’ve made it obvious that I’m not interested.” 

“Now Max, get out of my house.” Max goes to speak up again, but Hadley cuts him off. “You wouldn’t want to cause a scene now, would you?” Hadley wears a menacing smile as she watches Max push through the crowd of people and out through the front doors. 

“Damn. That was impressive.” Emilia smiles at her with a twinkle in her eyes. Hadley smiles and nods. She knows that she’ll probably get reprimanded for her act of aggression, but it was worth it. 

A tinkling of glasses makes the group look toward the front of the room where a makeshift stage has been set up. Hadley’s father is at the top, standing beside the microphone smiling. Hadley can see through the toothy grin and knows that it lacks sincerity. Hadley’s mother sits behind him waving poliety to her colleagues. 

“Friends and acquaintances alike, thank you for coming to my home to celebrate my daughter’s seventeenth birthday. Hadley, come to the stage.” 

Eyes turn to Hadley and one of her friends gently push her forwards. She stumbles, but regains her composure. The soles of her boots hitting the ground is the only sound in the room. 

Hadley’s father holds out a hand towards her. She accepts, and slowly walks up the steps to stand beside him. 

“Hadley Anne, my only daughter, I can’t believe you’re turning seventeen. You’re an adult now.” Hadley forces a smile and looks out into the crowd. Emilia waves at her. Hadley relaxes slightly. 

Her father drones on more about Hadley and his own work before dismissing everyone back to mingling. Hadley eagerly runs off the stage back to her friends. 

Cyril, a lanky boy not much taller than Hadley, wraps his arms around her. 

“Happy birthday, princess,” Cyril whispers in her ear. 

“Thanks, Cy.” Hadley and Cyril pull apart and Emilia bumps her way in their conversation. 

The party lasts long into the night, ending sometime around midnight.. 

“Cyril, Emilia, do you two want to sleep over? It’ll be like old times.” Hadley, Cyril, and Emilia have been akin to the three musketeers since childhood. Their parents being co-workers and living in the same neighborhood played a big impact on their friendship. 

“Of course!” Emilia starts to run opposite the crowd shuffling towards the door, and heads up the stairs. Hadley watches her stop halfway and wave them on. 

“I can’t,” Cyril says. He turns his head down, and avoids eye contact. 

“Cy, it’s no problem. Don’t worry about it. We can hang some other time.” Hadley hugs him one last time before pushing against the thinning crowd. She stops at the top of the stairs and watches as the last of the people move out of her front door and into the night. Sighing, she continues to her room. 

Hadley walks in to see Emilia changing out of her knee length copper cocktail dress, and into a tight pair of jeans and long sleeve crop top. The trunk of Emilia’s spare clothes is spilled out on the floor. 

“Em, what are you doing?” Hadley shrugs her jacket off and tosses it on her dresser. 

“We are going to a party!” Emilia pulls on a pair of sneakers over her sheer stockings. She pulls bobby pins out of her hair and shakes it out before haphazardly putting her hair in a ponytail. 

“We were just at a party.” Hadley unzips her boots. She sits down on her bed and watches Emilia pull clothes from Hadley’s closet. Crop tops, shorts, mini skirts, and jackets, all in a variety of metallic, print, and plain fabrics, litter Hadley’s bed.

“You’re going to have to trust me, Lee.”

“Unfortunately, I do.” Hadley stares at the clothes laid on her bed. Emilia lets out a slight laugh. 

“Lighten up, and choose something to wear. This is going to be fun.” 

Hadley decides on a sequined mini skirt and striped tank top. Emilia tosses a dark jacket at her. 

“Wear sneakers.” Emilia instructs. Hadley does as she’s told and laces up a pair of black high tops. She definitely looks nicer than Emilia and it worries her. 

“Don’t be nervous.” Emilia walks over to Hadley and ruffles her hair. “Don’t want you looking out of place. This is an actual teenager party. You know, the ones where you won’t get in trouble if you yell ‘Fuck’.” Hadley snorts and bursts into a fit of laughs. 

She had gotten in trouble in eighth grade for doing just that. She spilled a virgin margarita on her new jeans and yelled “fuck” after hearing it at school. 

“That was one time!” Hadley laughs. 

“Shh. Your parents are going to come up here if you’re not quiet.” 

“No they won’t. They never do.” She and Emilia sit in silence. 

“Your car is here right?” Emilia breaks the silence. 

“Always.”

“Then what are we waiting on?” Emilia grins. Hadley playfully rolls her eyes. 

Hadley and Emilia walk down the stairs after one last look check. Hadley grabs her keys off a hanging rack beside the garage door and locks the door behind her. Emilia snatches the keys from Hadley. 

“I’m driving.” She smirks. 

Hadley gets nervous when Emilia passes by all the neighborhoods their schoolmates live in. 

“Em… where are you taking us?” 

“You’ll see, just trust me.” 

Emilia parks at a warehouse close to the wall. Hadley is stunned. She’s never been this far out of the city. 

“Holy-” Hadley gasps. Emilia smirks at her. 

“This is the best place to have fun.” Hadley doesn’t doubt that. Fun has practically become a foreign subject to her. The parties she attends are all thrown by people twice her age and think fun is talking with people about business and showing off how rich you are. 

Emilia leads her through a crowd. People standing against walls give them weird looks. One girl with fire engine snaps her teeth at Hadley and laughs when she jumps. Hadley flicks her off and a guy has to hold the teeth snapper back. 

Emilia and Hadley finally reach a room at the back of the warehouse. It’s darker than the rest of the warehouse and neater for what Hadley can see. Three people sit on couches laughing, well two are laughing. One is suppressing a smile and rolling his eyes. 

“Vega!” Emilia bounces over to a teal-haired girl whose eyes light up at the sight of her. 

“I wasn’t sure if you were coming tonight. I thought you had some prissy party to go to.” Vega pulls Emilia down next to her on the couch. Emilia gestures to where Hadley is standing at the door. 

“Hello, gorgeous,” A tall male steps up and takes Hadley’s hand. His wears a smirk. Hadley notes that his dark skin is warm, slightly too warm. He looks similar to the girl Emilia sits beside. Hadley looks between Vega and the boy. 

“Vaughn, leave the girl alone.” Vega stifles a laugh. 

“Interesting name.” Hadley’s eyes stay on Vega and Emilia. They’re laughing, Emilia’s face is flushed from it. A twinge of jealousy runs through Hadley. 

“Thanks, beautiful. Mind telling me what yours is?” Hadley turns back to Vaughn who is smirking at her, his white teeth shining in the dim lighting. 

“It’s Hadley.” 

“Like the mayor’s daughter?” A rough voice comes from the far edge of the room. Emilia and Vega stop their laughing. 

“Shit.” Emilia swears under her breath. 

“Yeah. What’s it to you?” Hadley’s voice wavers lightly. Vaughn’s hand tightens around hers. 

“Emilia, I didn’t think you were this stupid.” The boy laughs. 

“Jaxon, don’t.” Vega warns. There’s a protective edge to her voice. 

“She’s my best friend, Jax.” 

“She’s a Carmichael! She’ll probably relay all the information back to her daddy. Right, princess?” The words feel like a slap across Hadley’s face. Bile rises in her throat. 

“Stop talking like I’m not standing here!” Hadley shouts. All eyes turn to her. 

“We’re all aware that you’re here. Can we get her out of here so we can talk?”


End file.
